Hello - I hope there are others that have been through this and might have a few ideas as to what is happening to my 10yo Brittany Spaniel Honey.

A few days ago she was drinking a LOT and peeing a lot. Her urine was very pale and odorless. On the third day she seemed better and was drinking more normally, but her pee was still pale and odorless. I got a sample and brought her in to the vet.

She does seem slightly constipated but I usually have her on fibre and took her off for a few days because I was concerned with this problem - this might be why her poops are a little dry, but other than that, she shows no other symptoms at all. Her vitals are great. Temp fine. Appetite is ravenous (which may be a symptom of something). No hair loss. Coat is nice. Playful and content. Urine sample shows perfect surgars so it isn't diabetes, and there is no evidence of infection (UTI). It is very dilute though, and the ph is a bit off. My vet, one of the best in our area, finds it all very curious. He said it may be chronic renal failure, but she shows absolutely no other symptoms. He talked about Cushings, but again, she shows no other symptoms. He said he has seen this kind of thing before and the problem resolved itself within a week - perhaps the dog got into something that made the kidneys need to flush themselves. He suggested that we wait a few days and watch her closely. If the problem is still present next week, to bring her in and they would do a bloodwork and check out everything.

She is very comfortable napping right now. Had a wonderful breakfast. Had a couple of generous drinks, but nothing that made me overly concerned. And two big pees, BOTH very pale and odorless STILL.

I know my vet is on the case and he wouldn't steer me wrong - he's been with me for over 25 years and many pets - he is a wonderful doctor. I just find this waiting period of watching her to be torturous. I love her so SO much and I can't help but be panicking. Is this the start of chronic renal failure? My mind is telling me this is the beginning of the end and I'm so upset.

Has anyone else had any experiences like this, and what did it end up being? Is there anything I should be doing or can do for her?

Thank you all for your time.

sugarcatmom

January 31st, 2012 12:46 PM

[QUOTE=renkma;1033668] He said it may be chronic renal failure, but she shows absolutely no other symptoms. [/QUOTE]

Early CRF doesn't necessarily have any other symptoms beyond extra drinking/peeing. You would need blood work and a urinalysis to determine whether Honey has it or not.

Crossing my fingers that this is just a temporary thing and Honey returns to normal shortly. But just to put your mind at ease a little bit, pets can live many happy years with renal insufficiency. My 19 yr old cat has had CRF for 2 years and he's doing really well.

yankeemom

February 6th, 2012 07:08 PM

our brittany is going through the very same thing, she is 4 years old. we have had all kinds of test done and still know nothing. we thought we were going to lose her at one point. she went to the vets. and stayed 2 nights their. they wanted to see what would happen if she did not get any water . that was not a good thing to do. she ended up with IVs. she was very sick. she is doing better now but is still drinking a lot. please let me know if any thing changes with your dog and I will do the same. Good luck

yankeemom

February 6th, 2012 07:12 PM

brittany needs help

hazelrunpack

February 7th, 2012 10:32 AM

Yankeemom, have you had your dog checked for tick-borne diseases? They can be hard on the kidneys. Even if the tests are negative, it might be a good idea to try a course of doxycycline with your dog--some of the TBDs are hard to detect and some of the emergent ones are new enough that they haven't been identified yet.

MaxaLisa

February 13th, 2012 03:17 AM

[QUOTE=hazelrunpack;1034263]Yankeemom, have you had your dog checked for tick-borne diseases? They can be hard on the kidneys. Even if the tests are negative, it might be a good idea to try a course of doxycycline with your dog--some of the TBDs are hard to detect and some of the emergent ones are new enough that they haven't been identified yet.[/QUOTE]
This was my first thought too.

Hanora

February 21st, 2012 12:28 AM

Early CRF is usually without symptoms except drinking and copious dilute urine. I know, my wee guy has this issue and it was a shocking thing to discover because he seems just fine. Unless your dog starts concentrating urine perfectly in repeated tests, I would follow this up with blood work (BUN, Creatinine, phos., etc., testing for lepto) and a urine culture to rule out a UTI which can be hard to pick up in dilute urine.

fingers crossed it's nothing.

lalalorz

February 21st, 2012 01:00 AM

When I was little we had a dog go through the EXACT SAME THING, had all the tests done and couldn't find anything, were freaking out until my father went into the garage and noticed that there was an entire jug of anti-freeze missing. She had drank the whole jug!! We took her back to the vet and told him what had happened and she was back to her normal self in a few days! Check around the house and make SURE there's nothing Honey could have gotten into!!

im_nomad

February 26th, 2012 07:52 PM

Renkma, no doubt you've gotten your answer by now, but my dog went through a similar thing this past year. She's always had a touch of kidney problems, but late fall 2010 it was as if she'd become incontinent. She was making it outside most of the time, but was also having major accidents, wetting her bedding, and lastly leaking on her bedding at night while asleep.

At age 14 at the time, I assumed she was just getting too old to hold it, but I did take her to the vet, and much like your dog, her blood work and urinalysis were ok, aside from dilute urine and the ph or creatinine (I can't remember which), were off.

Vet said in all likelihood she was in early stages of age-related renal failure, so onto a lower protein diet she went.

But what made the BIGGEST difference was her being on estrogen supplementation. She was given a booster of pills daily, and now she takes it once a week. This corrects spay-related incontinence and I can tell you it was like night and day with this dog. She has now been on it several months, and while I can't say she's never had an accident since (she's 15.5 now), it made SUCH a huge difference to life around here, and spared my state of mind too because I was constantly washing bedding and cleaning floors.

renkma

April 18th, 2013 09:50 AM

I came in to post on a new problem and noticed that I never thanked everyone for their suggestions and advise on my Honey's piddle problem. Thank you everyone - so much.

It ended up being nothing. She went through all the bloodwork, urine testing, and exams and her docter feels that she is just aging that way. She like to drink - maybe from a bit of anxiety - and it makes her pee a lot and her pee is a little dilute. Her kidneys working fine. There was even some thought into a condition of rapid onset of blindness and the dilute and frequent drinking and peeing as a symptom, but it is a very rare condition and so far - she shows no indicators to that condition.

It's been over a year and -- at least in regards to this suspicious behavior and piddle -- she is fine.:thumbs up